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			<h1>The first Punic war</h1>
			<p>Written in <span title="Greek and Roman Civilization">HIST 1421</span> of <a href="http://www.uopeople.edu/">University of the People</a>, finalised on 2017-05-10</p>
		</header>
<p>
	Rome was one of the most powerful city-states of the ancient world.
	However, Carthage was once a close rival of Rome.
	While Rome&apos;s power came from their conquests and integration, Carthage instead drew power from their trade treaties with other countries and the skills and wares of their merchants.
</p>
<h2>Strengths and weaknesses</h2>
<p>
	Rome and Carthage were both powerhouses of the ancient world, and could almost be called equals.
	However, they each had their own strengths and weaknesses the other lacked.
	Rome was better-organised than Carthage, and had one of the best armies of the time.
	There&apos;s a reason they were able to take over much of ancient Greece!
	Rome&apos;s citizens, having a say in what the nation does, were more loyal to Rome than Carthage&apos;s citizens were loyal to Carthage.
	Carthage, on the other hand, had greater wealth than Rome.
	Carthage was a nation of trading, so wealth naturally sprung forth from that.
	One of Carthage&apos;s greatest strengths was the range of their goods.
	They traded for the valuable goods of other nations, which they then traded for more goods.
	Instead of making the long and potentially-dangerous journey between all the countries that had the goods you wanted, you could simply seek the Carthaginian market for a one-stop shop of most of the more valuable things other nations had to offer.
	This put Carthage in a position of great power, as they had a hand in many of the trades of the ancient world, even when products of Carthage weren&apos;t involved.
	Carthage&apos;s military strength was its navy, so while Rome had them beaten on land, Carthage was more prepared for sea-based battle.
	The leadership of Carthage was also a big asset to them.
	They had better leadership than Rome, and as the leadership wasn&apos;t swapped out every year like Rome&apos;s was, Carthage could better stay on a single path instead of switching directions each time new leaders were elected.
	Even the display of these two city-states&apos; greatness differed.
	Rome showed its true strength in times of hardship, and its greatest asset was its people.
	Carthage instead showed what it was made of during times of prosper, and it drew its strength from its tangible resources (Morey, 1901).
	I think this is a big part of why Rome eventually triumphed.
	It&apos;s difficult to finish off a state, such as Rome, that succeeds in its darkest hours.
	Carthage, on the other hand, seems easier to take out if you knock it down a peg first.
	I also like to think people are more powerful than mere goods, when well-organised.
</p>
<h2>The first Punic war begins</h2>
<p>
	Rome and Carthage both sought to control the island of Sicily.
	Carthage already controlled the western part of the island.
	The rest was controlled by either the king of Syracuse or a mutinous group of Campanian soldiers (calling themselves the Mamertines), formerly in the employ of the king of Syracuse.
	The king lay waste to the Mamertine&apos;s city of Messana, reducing them to the point they needed to seek outside help.
	They chose to ask the Romans to aid them against the king.
	Rome was on good terms with Syracuse though, and the Mamertines had slaughtered the previous inhabitants of their city when they repossessed it.
	Helping the Mamertines meant turning against a friendly power in favour of helping murderous criminals!
	However, Rome feared if they refused to help the Mamertines, the Mamertines would simply seek help elsewhere.
	Specifically, they&apos;d seek help from Carthage.
	The Roman assembly could not stand by and allow Carthage to gain more land in Sicily.
	They voted to help the Mamertines (Morey, 1901).
</p>
<p>
	Rome sent an army to Sicily, but the Mamertines had given up waiting.
	The Mamertines had allowed the Carthaginian troops into the city.
	The Roman general took this as a breach of trust.
	The Roman general then invited the Carthaginian general to a supposedly-peaceful conference, but turned on the Carthaginian general and captured them.
	The Carthaginian general traded the city for their own freedom, so Rome gained control of Messana.
	The king of Syracuse sided with the defeated Carthaginians, formed an alliance with them, and tried to force the Romans to leave the island.
	Rome&apos;s army was far too powerful to be driven away though, and after that was proven with the defeat of both the Carthaginian army and the Syracuse army, the king of Syracuse switched sides.
	Now, the king formed an alliance with Rome to instead drive the Carthaginians from Sicily (Morey, 1901).
</p>
<p>
	The Romans were highly successful in this endeavour, and one by one, each Carthaginian city fell.
	The Romans&apos; armies were the superior force on land.
	Carthage&apos;s navy reclaimed the seaside towns though.
	With Carthage controlling the sea, it was also made very difficult for Rome to send land troops to the island by boat (Morey, 1901).
	All Carthage would have to do is keep Rome cut off from the island while continuing the war.
	Rome would eventually run out of soldiers on Sicily and Carthage would win.
</p>
<h2>Rome builds a navy</h2>
<p>
	The Romans realised they couldn&apos;t defeat Carthage on land alone.
	They had to meet them in battle at sea as well if they were to win the war.
	For that, the Romans needed to work on building up their naval power.
	They took a Carthaginian ship that&apos;d previously wrecked in Italy and used it to model their own ships.
	In this way, they used Carthage&apos;s own technology against them!
	They improved upon those initial designs though, adding drawbridges that could be used to board other vessels.
	This allowed Roman soldiers to make use of one of their greatest land-based strengths, even on the sea: hand to hand combat.
	Rome trained their army as sailors and rowers, and was then ready to meat Carthage on the water (Morey, 1901).
</p>
<p>
	Rome&apos;s new navy was put under the command of the consul Duilius, who sent them to face Carthage at Sicily&apos;s northern coast.
	There, near Mylae, the Carthaginians were already plundering.
	Rome&apos;s fleet made good use of their ships with drawbridges, invaded the enemy ships, and took fifty of these Carthaginian ships down.
	Some of these ships were sunk, but others were captured (Morey, 1901).
	It&apos;s likely that these captured ships would be retrofitted with drawbridges later too.
	Rome had grafted a big part of the enemy&apos;s strength on the sea with their own strength on the land to extend their own strength to the sea and overcome their enemy&apos;s main advantage over Rome.
</p>
<h2>The war continues</h2>
<p>
	Now that Rome had become a naval power, they decided to hit Carthage on their home continent: Africa.
	The two consuls of the time, Manlius Vulso and Regulus, each led a legion to Africa to take on Carthage.
	Their victory was so easily accomplished though that the Romans withdrew Manlius Vulso, who returned home with their legion, and left Regulus and their own legion to finish the job.
	Rome should&apos;ve been victorious.
	However, in desperation, Carthage sought the help of a Spartan soldier.
	This soldier, Xanthippus, led the Carthaginian army to victory, and the Romans were defeated.
	Many were slaughtered, and Regulus was captured.
	A fleet was sent to rescue the survivors, but was lost in a storm on the way, and the war in Africa came to a halt (Morey, 1901).
	While Rome had overcome some of their own weaknesses and overpowered Carthage, they still had trouble in dealing with Spartans and severe weather.
</p>
<p>
	The war in Sicily continued though.
	Rome managed to defeat Carthage in Panormus, capturing the city.
	When Carthage came back, Rome beat them there again (Morey, 1901).
</p>
<p>
	Rome still had a log way to go before they&apos;d completely dominate Carthage, and the war had not yet been won.
	However, Rome knew how to learn from their enemies.
	Carthage may have had more resources than Rome, but Rome&apos;s ability to adapt is what kept them in the war long enough to win.
	The strengths of the Romans really showed through during trying times, such as when Carthage blocked Rome from sending more troops to Sicily.
	Rome found a way to fight on the sea and leverage their own strengths against the enemy.
	Carthage wanted to exchange prisoners at this point.
	Regulus, the Roman consul still held prisoner by the Carthaginians, was sent to Rome to convince the Romans to agree to the trade.
	Regulus had convincingly promised to return if unsuccessful.
	The went to the Roman senate, but instead of trying to convince them the trade was a good idea, they instead convinced them not to do it!
	Then, true to their word, they returned to Carthage (Morey, 1901).
</p>
<p>
	Carthage&apos;s losses had pushed them to the far side of the island.
	However, the Romans were unable to defeat their stronghold, and when Rome tried to destroy Carthage&apos;s ships near Drepanum, over ninety of Rome&apos;s ships were destroyed instead.
	Wealthy, private, Roman citizens lent money to the government to build two hundred more ships though, and Rome wasn&apos;t down for the count.
	This new fleet was used to defeat Carthage at the Aegates Islands, and Carthage was forced to surrender.
	They handed over the entirety of the island of Sicily, as well as all the Romans held prisoner, and paid a hefty sum of money to Rome (Morey, 1901).
</p>
<h2>Conclusion</h2>
<p>
	Rome and Carthage were both very powerful nations.
	Even at the end of this war, it wasn&apos;t fully decided which was to reign supreme.
	The Romans had accomplished much through fighting Carthage, where Carthage didn&apos;t really seem to gain anything in the fight.
	It wasn&apos;t even Rome&apos;s victory that helped Rome the most, or even the island of Sicily that they&apos;d won, but what happened along the way.
	Rome now had a powerful navy, when they lacked any sort of decent sea-based fighting capabilities before.
	This ability of Rome to adapt was perhaps their greatest asset, both in this war, and in wars to come.
</p>
<div class="APA_references">
	<h2>References:</h2>
	<p>
		Morey, W. C. (1901). Outlines of Roman History, Chapter 14. Retrieved from <a href="https://forumromanum.org./history/morey14.html"><code>https://forumromanum.org./history/morey14.html</code></a>
	</p>
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